It seems that everyone, from Oprah Winfrey to Robert Murdoch to Sam Harris, is getting on the meditation bandwagon.  Amazon lists thousands of books on meditation, each one offering another method to connect with the Inner Self, or describing profound experiences and revelations produced through meditation.  But is meditation all that it cracks up to be?  Is it really the panacea  for all that ails the human soul?  This week's guest, Dr. Miquel Farias, along with co-author, Catherine Wikholm, has written a new book, The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?, that takes an objective and scientific look at the reality of meditation.  Yes, meditation is a soulful and meaningful activity that can instill a sense of the spiritual but, the authors conclude, it also has dark side, and at times may not always deliver the results anticipated.  Listen in as Philip and Dr. Farias explore a different take on meditation.

The discoveries of science continue to show that the universe is riddled with mysteries that continue to elude even the most power instruments of modern technology.  The more one looks, the broader and deeper the mysteries seem to become.  One of these little advertised mysteries is known as the faint young sun paradox.  According to what science knows about the development of stars such as the sun, the Earth should have been too cold in the past to have allowed for the development of life.  Listen in as Philip and author Stuart Clark explore this fascinating mystery of science.

In this show from the archives, I speak with best-selling author, Larry Dossey, M.D., about his newest book, One Mind: How Our Individual Mind is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why it Matters.  In this show, Larry and I discuss how all signs are pointing to the truth of the age-old spiritual teaching that behind the veil of the physical world rests a united mind, that some people call God.  This truth was known by the founders of many of the world's great religions, but has gotten swept aside by the mechanical, materialistic model of modern science.  Fortunately, science, through the quantum theory, entangled particles, the fine-tuning of the universe and many other findings is itself starting to sense that perhaps the cosmos is interconnected at least on some level.  With luck, the mystical searchers and the science researchers will run into each other somewhere along their respective quests for truth.  Listen in to see what Doctor Dossey has to say about this increasingly important topic.

Everyone wants to find their true self, if only they had the time and the directions for getting there. Connecting the higher self with the lower self or the ego with the soul sounds like a good idea but it also has the air of the mystical.  What do these words mean and what good will this all do? In his new book, Discover Your Purpose: How to Use the 5 Life Purpose Profiles to Unlock Your Hidden Potential and Live the Life You Were Meant to Live, this week's guest, Rhys Thomas, makes this soul-searching quest real by setting out a practical method to find your life's purpose.  Listen in as Philip and Rhys explore uncharted territory in bringing the search for life's purpose down-to-earth.

Since the publication of his seminal book, The Self-Aware Universe in 1993, theoretical physicist and quantum activist, Amit Goswami, has been a pioneer in integrating the findings of quantum physics into our modern world.  In his latest book, Quantum Economics: Unleashing the Power of an Economics of Consciousness, Amit argues that modern economic theory must include the vital energies of our internal subtle and spiritual experiences. Economics must be based upon the preeminent role of consciousness, not matter, and we should work toward sustaining ourselves not through adding more material possessions or taking more materialistic cures, but by tapping our unlimited spiritual potential. A true quantum economics.

The notion that there is one mind underlying reality is as old as thought itself.  The early Upanishads, written thousands of years ago, say that “Truly the self is mind.  Truly the world is mind.  Truly Brahman is Mind.”  If we are connected to One Mind, that means our natural disposition is to be part of a whole.  When we break from this emotional and mental stance, we become out of alignment with who we are, leading to unhappiness, stress, and even bodily illness.  In her new book, The Transcendent Mind- The Missing Peace in Emotional Wellbeing, this week’s guest, Sunita Pattani, writes about how when we rise above thinking of ourselves as an individual ego and begin realizing that we are part of interconnected web, we go to a place where emotional and physical healing comes more easily.  Listen in as Philip and Sunita explore the benefits of adopting a Transcendent Mind.

At some point science may find God, and then things will really change.  We are accustomed to believing in God based on faith and revelation; the instruments of science, it is said, show no signs of God.  But then again, maybe they do. In his new book, God's Blueprint - Scientific Evidence that Earth was Created for Humans, this week's guest, Christopher Knight, marshals scientific and logical evidence that points in the same direction: the universe and life itself are just too intricately designed to have arisen by chance.  This evidence comes not just from the peculiar fit between humans and cosmos, but also from the ratios among key features of the Earth, the moon, and the sun that keep appearing in completely unrelated areas, all which suggests a deep blueprint we are just starting to uncover.

The modern mind seeks a new story and this story will need a new language.  The story will not be told in the language of materialism -- random particles, impersonal forces, and a world without purpose -- but instead in the language of consciousness.  Phrases such as "connecting with your soul" and "evolving to a higher level of consciousness" will not be considered new age mumb-jumbo, but instead describe the movement of consciousness to understand itself.  In his book, What My Soul Told Me, this week's guest, Richard Barrett, writes about how we are really embodied souls on a journey to a higher level of awareness.  But this journey is not into a mystical realm reachable only by great yoga masters, but is available to anyone in their daily lives and at work. Aligning the soul with the role of the body remains the key to a better life.  Listen in as Philip and Richard explore the dimensions of the soul.

We are accustomed to encountering the concept of evolution in the biological sense, but it is growing increasingly evident that consciousness also evolves across generations.  If so, then at some point a generation will arise that, in the words of this week's guest, Kingsley Dennis, will "be born as change" not "into change."  This new generation will not face the current dichotomy of science and religion but will start at a place where no such antagonism exists.  This will be what Kingsley calls The Phoenix Generation (http://www.amazon.com/The-Phoenix-Generation-Connection-Consciousness/dp/1780287925).  Listen in as Philip and Kingsley discuss the new form of consciousness that is unfolding as part of our true nature.

As Yogi Berra once said, predictions are very difficult, particularly ones about the future.  The difficulty of predicting the future has not stopped many people from trying their hand at crystal-ball gazing: from stock picking, to sport betting, to weather predictions, and astrology, seeing into the future has continued to mesmerize the mind.  If only it were real.  The 16th century French diviner, Nostradamus, is widely considered the most famous prophet -- outside of the Bible -- who ever lived, even though he never considered himself a prophet.  In his new book, Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies for the Future, this week's guest, Mario Reading, (who himself was raised in the birthplace of Nostradamus), presents an original and thought-provoking interpretation of the famous quatrains of Nostradamus.  Along the way, Mario gives Nostradamus's prediction of the next U.S. president and also conveys a message of hope: Nostradamus may have seen into the future, but in his heart he believed the future was ours to change.